Circus Home

Brendan Hardy was a carnival barker. He spent his career on the midway, luring people into the lascivious pleasures of the sideshow tent. As he enters old age, “the daughter” convinces him to move to assisted living. Brendan chooses to live out his final years with his kind of people—in the New Jersey Home for Retired Circus and Carnival Performers. One day he gets an idea. He puts a sign over the coffee maker in the clubroom, asking to collect the life stories of the residents of the Home. This captivating, magical novel presents those stories as only Brendan can tell them. The sweeping novel springs to life in New Jersey, along with settings as diverse as 1880s Brooklyn, 1920s Mississippi, 1940s Detroit and a west-bound wagon train. It mixes historical events with brilliantly observed characters, both fictional and real. Brendan’s storytelling ranges from laugh-out-loud funny to heartbreaking. And it all leads to an unexpected, punch-in-the-throat ending.